The Rock Island Mutual Building, Loan and Savings Association
In the year 1880 on the invitation of the late Samuel S. Guyer, the pioneer savings institution of Rock Island was organized. This institution was one of the first Building Associations organized in Illinois and has been the model for many similar associations in this and adjoining States. During the first year the total receipts were only $4,263.70. But so rapidly were the investing public educated in the advantages of the Building Association, that in the year 1894 the annual receipts had increased to $237,619.05. How much benefit has accrued from this association to the City of Rock Island in promoting habits of thrift and economy, in furnishing the means whereby rent payers could become home owners; in putting life into real estate investments generally and in stimulating all the building trades, can hardly be overestimated. Through the medium of this association over two thousand citizens have been enabled to provide their families with homes on the payment of monthly installments, no more burdensome than the monthly payment of rent. Savings depositors have been accorded the full earnings of their moneys and these earnings have averaged considerably above the rates that money could be loaned for. There are no favored stockholders to absorb the major part of the earnings. The association is purely mutual. All the earnings are divided equitably pro rata according to the amount and the time of investment. The association’s motto is: “The American Home is the Safeguard of American Liberties.”
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908